Beautiful, quiet, moving and very comfortable too.
This is a true gem almost in the middle of the jungle that is Maidstone. You just couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place to have a funeral service. Very many thanks to the Vicar, the Reverend John Corbyn, for his kind permission to take these pictures and add them to my website. Of course Craig, as usual, such excellent pictures!
Only a few minutes drive from the Crematorium, this venue is, well out of this world in comparison. Why would anyone, except the non-religious, want to go to the crematorium chapel to celebrate a life when you could come here.
Some simple, but important details. There are toilets here, a decent car par, an excellent Organist, Verger and Vicar. Nice level floor for anyone with a mobility handicap. Excellent facilities for playing music, and yes, the Vicar is very accommodating with this. We recently played the sounds of a Spitfire, as the coffin was carried into Church. Loud enough to shake the roof! (Sorry John those tiles that fell off are nothing to do with me)
The picture above. What can you add to that. My Dad (a life long funeral director in Maidstone) said never to use too many superlatives. So I have run out of words.
We (the cortege) turn left here, but the car park is off to the right in this picture.
This picture shows the area where we enter (the doorway directly ahead in this picture). Once in, we will pause while the Vicar will ask everyone to stand, and then commences the service. You can also see in the picture, a view of the balcony where mourners may also sit. So this Church will seat 250 mourners! I think, with the agreement of the Vicar, that coffins should be carried on a wheeled bier here. The doorway is quiet narrow and it can look rather odd to see us wiggling our way in with the coffin on our shoulders!